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Speaker 1: Now I can't stand it. This is an outrage.

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Speaker 2: We've crossed over from insult to outrage.

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Speaker 1: Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask

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what you can do for your country. Mister Gorbichaw, tear

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down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast with Peter Robinson,

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Charles C. W. Cook and I'm an AI version of

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James Lylax today with our guest, Lieutenant General h har

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McMaster talking about global battlespace preparation. Let's have ourselves a podcast.

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They say the country is on the wrong track. You've

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been in office for three and a half years.

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Speaker 2: And Donald Trump has been running for office, so you've

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been the person holding the office.

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Speaker 3: You and I both know what I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1: You and I both know what I'm going to Actually,

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what are you talking about? I agree you'll never get

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bored with when we never get bored. Welcome everybody to

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the Ricochet Podcast, number seven hundred and thirteen. I'm Stephen

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Hayward doing my best to be an AI bought version

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of James Lilacs. Remember last week he's threatened that this

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might be in our future and joining me as always

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right now, Peter Robinson and Charles C. W. Cook. So

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I'm gonna skip over James's provocation from last week about

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whether we may all be obsolete because of Ai soon.

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I actually heard a draft podcast this week and it

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was terrifying at how smooth it was, and so forth. Okay, instead,

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let's think a little bit about starting.

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Speaker 3: How do we know you?

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Speaker 2: Are you right now?

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Speaker 4: That's a good question.

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Speaker 1: You can see me, can't you. Of course, you've always

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had a little hard to believe, Steve, All right, now,

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behave yourself, Peter, let's start here. I'm starting to feel

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like there is no October surprise. It's kind of groundhog week.

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I mean, we had another Israeli victory on the battlefield,

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we had another shaky performance, actually more than one from

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Kamala Harris, and we have a whole bunch of new

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polls out showing the race is still a dead heat.

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There anything change this week? I mean, there are a

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couple of things to bring up, but go ahead, Peas

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something changed? Good? What was? What changed?

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Speaker 2: There was an immensely significant event and I'm not even

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kidding how it will make its way into politics when

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I do not know, but the SpaceX recapture of the

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Booster rocket was a staggering moment, and it did Victor

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Davis Hansen. I caught fick well. I ran into Victor yesterday.

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Victor got it immediately. I saw him on Laura Ingram

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later that evening. The rest of the world hasn't gotten it,

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and I'm not sure the rest of the world will,

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but Victor got it immediately. This race, in some ways

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the entire culture is now between those who want to

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lecture the rest of us and those who want to build.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, by the way, there's a great you know, the

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great geniuses at the Babylon b One of their headlines

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out this week is Nassa baffled at how Elon Musk

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managed to succeed without as many gay, don binary, Muslim

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dwarfs of color as they have. Yes, yes, right, And.

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Speaker 2: This is the running argument that James Lilacs and I

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have been having. James thinks I'm opposed to space travel

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space not at all. I'm opposed to doing that on

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taxpayer money. During the Cold War, you could argue that

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it was an extension of the war itself, that it

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was in the public interest to get to the Okay,

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Elon Musk did what he did on the money of

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private investors. NASA has failed to do what Elon Musk

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did by squandering our money, that in any of it.

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So I want to hear what you boys think of that.

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Am I onto something there? Excuse me? I know I'm

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onto something I wanted to see if the two of

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you are clever enough to pick up on it.

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Speaker 1: Well, you may have missed Charlie's fine piece about Elon

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Musk a couple of days ago. So Charlie, Charlie.

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Speaker 2: Writes faster than I can read, So I'm sorry. I

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refuse to feel guilty about that.

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Speaker 1: Charlie, give us your take on that and plug your

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piece if you like.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 5: Well, the piece was about the myopic habit of focusing

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primarily on Trump as politician rather than his genius inventor.

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Speaker 4: And the problem with doing that is.

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Speaker 5: That we rightly allow much less eccentricity in our politicians

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than in our inventors. For example, we would not have

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wanted Henry Ford to win his Senate race, but he

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was nevertheless a great titan of industry.

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Speaker 4: And I worry a.

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Speaker 5: Little bit that by this monomon I will focus on

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Elon Musk's politics. We're going to see and are seeing

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an attempt to cancel him and ignore what he's doing

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in industry, which is utterly extraordinary. And he is the

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great genius of the era. Now, is he also a weirdo?

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Is he also a cheetah on his romantic partner? Is

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he also susceptible to conspiracy theories?

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Speaker 4: Short?

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Speaker 5: But those are probably the same instincts that have led

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him to revolutionize space travel and banking and cars and

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satellite internet and maybe eventually link the brain to a computer.

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So my lament was that I'm seeing pieces in the

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New Republic saying he's an idiot who's good at nothing.

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I think the space question that Peter raises is a

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fascinating one. My view of it is just that we

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have now evolved past the need for any government involvement

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at all. And you see this here in Florida where

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at Cape Canaveral. There is an attempt underway to turn

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this into a site for private enterprise, but that does

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require a bit of conversion. Back in the day when

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NASA was in charge and use Cape Canaveral for the

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Apollo program and other launches. For example, you couldn't launch

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more than one rocket from a given site at a time.

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The system was set up to be centrally controlled, and

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as a result, if you had person on launch Pad

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A and person on launch Pad B who wanted to

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launch their rockets within say, five or six hours of

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each other, you couldn't do it because the pipes that

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transmit the fuel were just not set up for this.

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NASA being in control of the master plan and so on,

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well that needs to change because the eventual plan is

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to have rockets coming in and out, and a bit

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like in an airport, although you have to deal with

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air traffic control, you don't tell each airline when they

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can do this, that or the other.

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Speaker 4: You don't have a master plan, you just coordinate.

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Speaker 5: So it seems to me that we are in the

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midst of transmuting what was the government monopoly for good reasons,

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the Cold War being one of them, into private enterprise.

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And I think we're actually getting it right. I think

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we're creating infrastructure to do which is going to be great.

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Speaker 2: Kanessa has become as completely unnecessary, as totally outavistic as NPR.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, but you know, my father was mixed up

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in both Apollo and UH and and the Gemini program

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before it, and he had a company.

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Speaker 3: That didn't know that.

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Speaker 1: Oh I never told you the story. Well I should

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have because among the things my father's company made was

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the parashue release relays and timers for Apollo, and the

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stage separation timers for both Gemini and Apollo, and.

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Speaker 2: Congratulations, as I recall, all of that always worked.

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Speaker 1: Always worked. Although you know, he's a subtext the whole

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Apollo thirteen story because I didn't make the movie of

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the book. But you know, engineers up all night long

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running tests. How you know, we know what the what

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the amperage specs are. Will it still work at a

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lower amperage spec the other okay? Uh? And you know

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since time, as we know from that very fine movie

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about it now. One of the things that he used

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to reflect on is they were in such a hurry

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to get to the moon. Because I also a love

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defense contracting for jet fire planes and helicopters, and he

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was telling me later about it was quite a contrast

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between dealing with the Pentagon and especially MacNamara's wiz kids

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about developing some fire planes, including the F one to eleven,

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which is really a dud, but that was one of

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those genius ideas of McNamara's people. But he said in Apollo,

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because Kennedy had set that date, certain, we want to

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be there. You know, eight nine years from now. NASA

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did not have time to bureaucratize. They were in a

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hurry to get things done. And today, I mean the

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kind of I won't say it cut corners in an

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unsafe way, but they were in such a hurry that

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you couldn't slow it down with endless review processes and bureaucracy.

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And you know, they trusted the engineers to make things work.

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And you know, one of them was actually I think

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it was the very second Apollo mission, Apollo twelve. You know,

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the the rocket takes off, it was struck by lightning

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and everything went dead. And now it turned out that yo, say, excuse.

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Speaker 2: Me, I can't remember. Was that shortly after or shortly

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before takeoff? I remember the end right for takeoff. So

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it's like a minute of takeoff, I think, because you know,

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it's still within the atmosphere, but it's under Oh yeah,

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it's a sending.

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Speaker 1: All right. And you know they and you know these

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days and they turn around, they look at all these

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young twenty eight year old engineers and their ties and protectors,

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and they said, no, we're good to go. Just flip

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these reset things and they'll be fine. And today they

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would never allow that to happen, right, I mean, it

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would be immediately scrubbed and anyway. So it's a whole

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different ethic then, and now forget about it. It's just

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another big sludge cludge filled bureaucracy.

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Speaker 2: Which is if everything we know about Elon, what comes

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through again in the Isaacson biography again and again and again,

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is that Elon is now the forcing function faster, faster, faster,

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three people move faster. It's just, oh, by the way,

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So there's another little angle of this while we're waiting

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for our guest. That comes again to the Constitution of

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the United States and why one feature in particular is

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so glorious at the current moment, and that is federalism.

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Because the California Coastal Commission, much beloved of Stephen Hayward

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because it protects his view between his estate in Cambria

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and the rolling hills down the Pacific, has now denied

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Elon Musk permission to increase the number of takeoffs on

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obviously political grounds. It is an outrage. Does Texas even

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dream of doing any such thing, of course, not yet

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another reason why God blesses Texas.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, but also why, as you say, God bless his federalism,

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and why the centralization of this is a bad idea. Obviously,

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when it comes to launching rockets, you can't just do

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it from anywhere. You have to be on a line.

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And that's why Florida, California, and Texas are the best sites.

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You can't just move to Minnesota, for example. But the

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sites that are eligible are now all fighting with one

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another for this business. And so Florida, and I know

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this because I went down and I visited it a

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few years ago. Florida is desperate to be the hub,

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and it's envious of Texas, and it's envious of California.

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And although California seems to be shooting yourself in the

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foot as usual, you are going to see this competition

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between these various sites driven by eventually private enterprise, where

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they say no, no, no, don't launch your rockets from Texas,

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you know, come and launch them here, which is just incredible.

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It's just an incredible thought relative to how NASA was

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run fifty years ago.

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Speaker 1: Well, one concluding comment and our guest has arrived. Peter,

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I hate the Coastal Commissions.

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Speaker 3: I know you do.

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Speaker 1: I know it was provoking. You see, God, I wasn't

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sure that people might believe you. You're so authoritative. There's

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one real puzzle to me, which is the Vandenburg Air

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Force Base is a federal facility, and I don't understand

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how the State Coastal Commission has any legal jurisdiction over

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it at all. And my counterexample to this is Berkeley,

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where I have a picture somewhere of me posing by

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the city limits sign where they've attached to sign saying

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Berkeley a nuclear free zone. And up above me in

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the picture is the Lawrence Livermore Lab where they do

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weapons research and still have a working ternastic that had

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never occurred to me. Of course, it's a federal facility

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beyond the reach of the Berkeley City Council. So there's

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something strange going on here.

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Speaker 5: Steve, Just as a final point before we go to

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I guess this is one of the issues I was

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told that Florida was having to deal with as well,

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is that you have these layers of permission that are necessary,

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and they were trying to simplify it. So with Cape Canaveral.

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Apparently before you could launch a rocket. I think they've

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changed this. You needed permission from the military because it

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was the military installation is adjacent to it. You need

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permission from the FAA because it's airspace, and you needed

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permission from various Florida organizations. And to try and make

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it more attractive, they've been trying to rationalize that so

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that it's only one institution that has to give permission.

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So I imagine you need to do something similar in California

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as well.

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Speaker 1: Could be but it's crazy except that here would be impossible,

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right christ You know, one of the things missing from

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the campaign this year, it seems to me, is a

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lot of talk about climate change. It's an unpopular issue

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for being a new sponsor of this the Ricochet Podcast. Well,

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let's the turn of our guest by saying that if

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the Ricochet Podcast had a frequent guest program, I think

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our guests, General hr McMaster would have gold level status.

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General McMaster has joined us several times before. Retired lieutenant

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general in the US Army, author of several fine books,

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including his most recent one, At War with our Selves,

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My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House. General McMaster,

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welcome back to the Ricochet Podcast.

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Speaker 3: Hey Steve, great to be with you.

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Speaker 1: So I've got a cind of a wild opening question

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for you that I didn't prepare you for, and so

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I'm going to make you improvise. You know, The Bulletin

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of Atomic Scientists have had their famous doomsday clock since

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nineteen forty seven, which is currently at ninety seconds to midnight,

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starting from seven minutes to midnight originally, and it's gone

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up and down some now. By the way, the primary

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driver is not nuclear war as it was say in

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the Cuban missile crisis. It's climate change, because of course

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everything reduces to climate change. That's a setup for saying

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if there were a McMaster scale for the prospect of

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global war or major international conflict. And I don't know

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if you want to go one to ten a to

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z clock to midnight. As I look around at Russia, Ukraine,

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which is increasingly tense, the Middle East obviously with Israel

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and Iran and other conflicts, where on the McMaster scale

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of potential worry of a widening global confrontation are we, Steve.

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Speaker 3: I think we're at an eight. And I think we're

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at eight because of a couple of reasons. First of all,

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is this coalescing of what I would call an axis

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of aggressors, and this, of course is China, Russia, Iran

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and North Korea, and the degree to which they are

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aiding and ambtting one another to accomplish their objectives. For China,

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of course, their objective is to create an exclusionary area

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of privacy across the Indo Pacific and to create new

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spheres of influence internationally. For Russia and Putin's to re

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establish the Russian Empire, to restore Russia to national greatness.

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For Iran, it's to kick the United States out of

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the Middle East as the first step in surrounding and

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destroying Israel. And for North Korea, their objective is to

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reunify the peninsula under the red banner. Right. So they

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have different objectives, but they see their interests overlapping, and

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they have a common interest in tearing down the existing

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international order and creating the chaos that they need to

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accomplish their objectives. The second reason, beyond the coalescing of

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the aggressors, is their perception of weakness, their perception that we,

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the United States and our allies and partners internationally, lack

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the resolve to be able to confront that aggression. And

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I think it is the perception of weakness that is

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what is provocative these days.

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Speaker 2: Hey, hr Peter here, I want to spend a moment

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flattering you. I was listening to you at the Hoover

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Institution yesterday, you know the presentation you did, And I

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was in the audience, and a young VC was sitting

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next to me and he said, that guy is amazing.

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He was trained as a warrior, and you were. You

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speak on public affairs yours, and you have become You

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became a serious historian. I mean, and the warrior bit

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tends to get forgotten about because because you blather so successfully.

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Speaker 1: Hr.

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Speaker 2: But we should note. We should note that you were

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in command of one of the most important tank engagements

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since the Second World War. We won't go into the details,

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but the Iraqi's lost every single tank and under you,

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our guys suffered not a single casualty. Anyway, you're a

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pretty remarkable guy. Here's the question, my question Ukraine and Israel.

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Our country seems it may be as a matter of

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policy that we a lot of stalemate in Ukraine. Here's

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what's happened in Ukraine. A bunch of technosavvy Ukrainian kids

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have saved their country by figuring out how to use

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Jerry Rigg drones to open up a naval passage along

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the coast of Ukraine, so that all though Ukraine does

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not have a navy, they force the Russians off so

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that they can continue to ship grain. They keep the

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Russians on the defensive, they prevent the Russians from advancing,

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They force them to dig in. It's a lot of

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our aid, it's tremendous bravery, but it's a bunch of

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technosavvy kids. We have a Pentagon with a budget of

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eight hundred billion dollars. The procurement process is sludge. Then

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we turn to Israel. The Biden administration has spent basically

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a year now telling bb Net and Yahoo and the

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IDF go slowly, just tap them, don't punch them, don't

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clean them out. No, no, no, And at some point

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BIB and the IDF said that's enough. This is our

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country we're fighting for. And they've destroyed AMAS and they've

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gone in and and who knows how bad the damage.

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They've reasserted the invincibility or at least the prestige of

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the masade of the IDF, of their air force, and

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they and they've attacked Iran. Now, I mean it's an

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So on the one hand, why the heck are we

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letting Zelensky run our policy? Why are we permitting BIB

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to be in the position of provoking enemies to the

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extent that we may have to And At the other hand,

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why aren't we kissing their asses.

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Speaker 3: It's a very.

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Speaker 2: Strange position to be in. It's a very strange position

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to be in. But what it comes down to is

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we should be learning lessons from them. Isn't there something

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to that?

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Speaker 3: I think there's a lot to that. I think what

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you can learn, you know, from the Ukrainians is that

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you know, war's not the best way of settling differences,

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is G. K. Chesterton observed, But it may be the

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only way to ensure they're not setting for you. And

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the Ukrainians understand that. So we keep trying to give

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them just enough for them to defend themselves, but not

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enough to really win and prevail. And of course, in war,

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you know, as the Prussian philosopher work Carl von Klausot's observe,

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each side tries to outdo the other. So if you're

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not trying to outdo your enemy, overmatch your enemy, you

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are to profound disadvantage and you see the initiative to

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your enemy. So I think this has been the tension

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between you know, Zelenski and the Biden administration, is that

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we're meeting out that assistance. We're debating every different type

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of weapon system the permissions to those use those weapon

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systems in a way that would allow them to stop

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the Russian onslaught with these long range missiles, for example.

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But the innovation part of this is immensely important. I

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think there's a recognition now that these commercially developed technologies

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have a direct implication to defense and have to be

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accelerated into our own arsenals. What we have seen are

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these of asymmetric capabilities like first person view drones at

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00:22:04,319 --> 00:22:07,440
PV drones. But you know what, Peter, there's always a

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countermeasure to everything in war. What we need to do

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is accelerate those capabilities into our force, but also the countermeasures,

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which in this case are different types of radars tied

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to directed energy weapons systems, for example, lasers you know

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that can drop things these out of the sky. Electromagnetic

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warfare is quite effective against these drones, for example. But

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as you mentioned, we're not agile enough. We haven't built

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those capabilities into our force as quickly as we need to.

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And then the other part of your question has to

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do with will, our will to prevail in conflicts and

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this message that we give the israelities, Hey, you need

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a ceasefire. You know in Gaza you need a ceasefire

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against Hesbola. How does the ceasefire make sense until Hamas

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is completely destroyed, until, as we just saw in the

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last forty eight hours, sind Wars killed. But also, you must.

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Speaker 2: Destroying happened to a nicer guy.

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Speaker 3: You have to destroy Hamas as a precursor to getting

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to any kind of enduring piece. The same people who say, oh,

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we need a ceizepar right now Israelis, stop pursuing the

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leadership of Hamas. Then in the next sentence, oftentimes President

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00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,759
Biden did this recently, talked about getting on the path

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to an enduring piece between Israelis and Palestinians, Israel and

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the Palestinians and a two state solution. Hey, if Hamas

425
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still has the guns in Hamas, I mean in Gaza,

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and they're still in charge and in their charter they

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are determined to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews,

428
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that doesn't sound like a two state solution to me, right. So,

429
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so there's a complete disconnect between what our political aims

430
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are and what we are doing militarily. And again what

431
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:53,240
Klausowitz would say, it's the first duty of the statesman

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not to try to try, not to try to turn

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war into something alien to its nature. And what we're

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00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:06,200
doing is advocating for military strategies constraints on forces that

435
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,359
are inconsistent with the political objective, and then we wonder

436
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,720
why we're having difficulty accomplishing political objectives.

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00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,559
Speaker 5: I have a question relating to the eight out of

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00:24:17,559 --> 00:24:20,079
ten answer you gave Elie. I just wonder if you

439
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:24,160
can contextualize that for me historically, if we're an eight, now,

440
00:24:24,319 --> 00:24:28,599
what were we Because often the doomsday clock is so

441
00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:33,599
close that it becomes lost in the proximity. If we

442
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were an eight, now, what were we twenty years ago,

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00:24:36,279 --> 00:24:37,759
forty years ago, sixty years ago?

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Speaker 4: How would you how would you set that up?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I would just say, like five five years ago,

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00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,400
for example, six years ago, we were probably you know,

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I would say like at a three, you know, or

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a four. And the reason is we still had a

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significant amount of credibility associated with our ability to use

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power effectively to deny our adversaries ability to accomplish their

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objectives to the use of force. What has changed in

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those years? I think certainly we should go back at

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least to twenty one and the disastrous and humiliating withdrawal

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from Afghanistan in twenty twenty one. I think it was

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that at that moment that the Axis of Aggressors looked

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at us and goes say, you know, these guys just

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surrendered essentially really across two administrations to a terrorist organization,

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you know, and so now's the time for us to act.

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It was at that very moment that Vladimir Putin supposedly

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wrote that long essay laying out what his objectives were

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for Ukraine and began to marshal the forces that he

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kept in place there to conduct the massive reinvasion of Ukraine.

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It was at that moment that China began to become

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much much more aggressive for everywhere from the Himalayan frontier

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to the South China Sea to Visa vi Taiwan. And

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it was during this period of time as the Biden

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adminstration came in and began to supplicate to the Iranians

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that they forfeited the gains associated with the Abraham Accords

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and actually emboldened the Iranians to intensify their proxy wars

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against the Great Satan, you know, us, and against Israel

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and their Arab neighbors. It was. It's been since then.

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At North Korea it has resumed testing of cruise missiles

473
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,680
and intercontinent pilistic missiles teared down. The reunification arch is

474
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,440
providing millions of artillery routes to the Russians, and now

475
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:37,519
Russians are training North Koreans in Russia for employment in Ukraine. Okay,

476
00:26:37,559 --> 00:26:41,680
So I think the breakpoint, at least just in recent history,

477
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,680
Charles as I would say, is the disastrous withdrawal from

478
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:51,039
Afghanistan and combined with the disastrous policies of the Biden

479
00:26:51,039 --> 00:26:53,839
administration in the Middle East.

480
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: General, my sense of this is that in the fullness

481
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,920
of time, especially if there's a wider conflagration ahead of us,

482
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,279
we're going to look back on the Afghanistan withdrawal as

483
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,279
the equivalent of the Munich Agreement in nineteen thirty eight,

484
00:27:08,279 --> 00:27:10,960
as a point of no return, as a fatal mistake.

485
00:27:11,799 --> 00:27:13,799
And you remind us a few minutes ago that of

486
00:27:13,839 --> 00:27:17,440
the time honored principle that weakness invites aggression. But there

487
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:19,880
are two kinds of weakness, and we've felt largely on

488
00:27:20,319 --> 00:27:24,920
political weakness. The ineptitude of our foreign policy leaders at

489
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,079
the moment under the blade administration. But there's another kind

490
00:27:27,079 --> 00:27:31,160
of weakness that tempts aggressors, and that's military weakness. Now,

491
00:27:31,319 --> 00:27:33,400
you know, I keep reading stories and I don't have

492
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,759
any deep expertise or contacts that you know. Morale's bad.

493
00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:39,839
We're falling short in our recruitment goals, a lot of

494
00:27:39,839 --> 00:27:43,400
our equipment is in disrepair. The Navy keeps seeming to

495
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,359
have a lot of accidents that seemed to me would

496
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:50,039
never have happened years ago. And so again, on the

497
00:27:50,319 --> 00:27:53,279
Maaster scale of worry, you know, one to ten, ten

498
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:57,119
being worse. How worried should we be about our military

499
00:27:58,200 --> 00:27:59,359
readiness and preparedness?

500
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 3: I would say, like a seven, we should be worried,

501
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,480
but recognize that these problems that you're laying out are

502
00:28:04,559 --> 00:28:07,920
quickly reversible if we act. Now, what has happened is

503
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,920
you've already mentioned, is there's been a diminishment of resources

504
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:15,440
available to the military because the Biden administration budget, despite

505
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,519
the threats we've been talking about, actually, when adjusted for inflation,

506
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:23,960
is a real reduction in defense spending. And so we

507
00:28:24,039 --> 00:28:26,400
have this bow wave of deferred modernization. It's kind of

508
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,759
a triple whammy as we look at it, a bow

509
00:28:28,799 --> 00:28:32,559
wave of deferred modernization. We have capacity issues in our

510
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,720
armed forces because we've assumed for way too long that

511
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,680
fewer and fewer and more exquisite systems could deliver security

512
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,240
for US, and those exquisite systems, we now know, because

513
00:28:44,279 --> 00:28:47,519
of countermeasures, are prone to catastrophic failure. We need capacity,

514
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:49,480
the size of the force matters, and we have the

515
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:53,319
recruiting issues, and I believe that we can address all

516
00:28:53,359 --> 00:28:56,160
of these. On the recruiting issues in particular, though, I

517
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,559
think it's connected to the million with we're all from Afghanistan,

518
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,920
gets connected to the degree to which popular culture, cheapens

519
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,400
and cours ins are warrior ethos. I think it's connected

520
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,079
to efforts to politicize the military in both political parties,

521
00:29:13,079 --> 00:29:16,319
on both political extremes. I said, should say with the

522
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,039
narrative that the military is extremist, right, I mean, we

523
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,000
know that you know that that military veterans were not

524
00:29:23,079 --> 00:29:25,640
over represented as a portion of the population on the

525
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,720
January sixth assault on the Capitol, for example. But that

526
00:29:28,759 --> 00:29:32,279
was a false narrative of the Democratic Party who tried

527
00:29:32,319 --> 00:29:35,160
to label you know, the members of the military is

528
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,240
extremist or or like people talk about white supremacy in

529
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,359
the military. I'm like, what military are you talking about?

530
00:29:41,519 --> 00:29:46,559
For thirty four years, our military is fundamentally intolerant of

531
00:29:46,599 --> 00:29:49,559
any form of bigotry or racism or sexism. Do we

532
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,839
have problems with that, Yes, because people come into our

533
00:29:52,839 --> 00:29:56,960
military for our society, but our culture rejects you know

534
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,559
that that kind of behavior and and and position. But

535
00:30:01,599 --> 00:30:04,079
the second, the second part of that is that you

536
00:30:04,119 --> 00:30:06,480
know this idea that the military has gone woke. The

537
00:30:06,519 --> 00:30:10,200
military is not extremist. There are people who are advancing

538
00:30:10,319 --> 00:30:15,960
their crazy social agendas associated with postmodernist critical theories and

539
00:30:16,119 --> 00:30:20,240
the valorization of victimhood and the organization of people into

540
00:30:20,279 --> 00:30:22,960
the categories of oppressor and oppressed and on a scale

541
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:28,119
of victim and oppressor. That that nonsense. There are political

542
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,559
appointees who are pushing that on the military, but the

543
00:30:31,599 --> 00:30:34,480
military has been resistant to that. And what we need

544
00:30:34,559 --> 00:30:38,640
is we need whatever administration comes in, get your hands

545
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:42,759
off the military, understand what the military is for. Re

546
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,680
establish the priority of being ready to fight and win wars.

547
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,319
That's what our service secretaries should talk about. If you

548
00:30:50,359 --> 00:30:53,640
look at the Biden administration service secretary's priorities, you could

549
00:30:53,759 --> 00:30:56,079
you could scratch your in and say, please, somebody remind

550
00:30:56,119 --> 00:30:57,720
me again, what's the military for?

551
00:30:58,039 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: You know?

552
00:30:58,319 --> 00:31:02,559
Speaker 3: So the standar's got to be combat readiness, combet effectors.

553
00:31:02,359 --> 00:31:05,000
And the last thing I'll say is there is a

554
00:31:05,039 --> 00:31:08,599
big important social dimension to this. You know, if you

555
00:31:08,759 --> 00:31:12,759
teach our children that our country is not worth defending,

556
00:31:13,079 --> 00:31:15,640
who the hell is going to defend you? And I

557
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:20,240
think the curriculum of self loathing in our universities, in

558
00:31:20,279 --> 00:31:23,920
our secondary education is taking its toll. I really believe

559
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:27,839
that's the case, combined with the way that popular culture

560
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:32,519
and even some well meaning charities portray veterans as traumatized,

561
00:31:32,559 --> 00:31:37,799
fragile human beings, and so Americans don't see the tremendous

562
00:31:37,839 --> 00:31:41,480
rewards of service. Hey, being part of the team that's

563
00:31:41,519 --> 00:31:45,000
committed to a mission bigger than yourself, being committed to

564
00:31:45,079 --> 00:31:47,000
the matter woman next to you, willing to give everything

565
00:31:47,039 --> 00:31:49,400
for them, being part of teams that really take on

566
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,319
the quality of a family and their commitment to one another,

567
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,319
and their commitment to our nation and their mission. And

568
00:31:57,039 --> 00:31:59,839
the vast majority of veterans they emerge from even the

569
00:31:59,839 --> 00:32:05,119
most harrowing experiences stronger, more resilient, and they go on

570
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:09,480
to make tremendous contributions in other walks of life in

571
00:32:09,519 --> 00:32:12,960
our society. So I think it's this combination, you know,

572
00:32:13,119 --> 00:32:17,319
of trying to politicize the military, these false narratives of

573
00:32:17,519 --> 00:32:22,759
extremism or wokeism in the military. It's it's popular culture,

574
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,160
it's and it's the curriculum of self loathing combined, I

575
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,319
think with disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, so and surrender. I

576
00:32:30,359 --> 00:32:33,480
don't want to self defeat in Afghanistan. So we can

577
00:32:33,519 --> 00:32:38,079
overcome all this, but we need leaders to get after it.

578
00:32:38,119 --> 00:32:41,759
And when you have you know, when you have members

579
00:32:41,759 --> 00:32:45,039
of both political parties trying to politicize the military, whether

580
00:32:45,079 --> 00:32:48,240
it's President Trump going to Area sixty at Arlington Cemetery,

581
00:32:48,519 --> 00:32:51,319
you know, where our most recent wars are buried, or

582
00:32:51,359 --> 00:32:54,519
whether it's President Biden going there when he announced the

583
00:32:54,559 --> 00:32:58,319
withdrawal from Afghanistan thinking that that we be a positive thing.

584
00:32:59,079 --> 00:33:02,119
So I just think that our political leaders are just

585
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:08,880
completely disconnected from what motivates our servicemen and women. And

586
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,240
that gets back to kind of this warrior ethos, right,

587
00:33:11,279 --> 00:33:16,079
this covenant that binds servicemen and women warriors to each

588
00:33:16,119 --> 00:33:19,200
other and should connect them to those in whose name

589
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,839
they fight and serve. That ethos is based on values,

590
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:27,240
you know, like their sense of honor, their sense of duty,

591
00:33:27,799 --> 00:33:31,480
their willingness to self sacrifice, their courage. Right. And so

592
00:33:31,559 --> 00:33:35,200
I think we have some work to do to get

593
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,519
you know, politicians hands off the military and the military ethos.

594
00:33:38,519 --> 00:33:41,720
But we could all, I think, talk more about the

595
00:33:41,759 --> 00:33:44,839
importance of service and the tremendous rewards of service.

596
00:33:46,799 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 2: HR McMaster's new book, At War with Ourselves, My Tour

597
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:51,559
of Duty in the Trump White House.

598
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:52,519
Speaker 3: HR.

599
00:33:53,559 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 2: You and I taped a long interview this past summer

600
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:59,359
about the book, so you know how much I admire it.

601
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,000
I won't go through through the whole book right now.

602
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,000
You're very critical of President Trump in a number of regards.

603
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,760
In particular, he said in motion what would become in

604
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:13,119
the Biden administration, the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He proved willing

605
00:34:13,159 --> 00:34:16,159
to deal with the Taliban in a way of which

606
00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:19,400
you disapproved. At the same time, you say that the

607
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:24,079
President Trump had a number of achievements in foreign policy.

608
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,239
The book is fascinating. It's an important historical document. At

609
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,760
War with Ourselves by H. R. McMaster. We are now

610
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,440
just over two weeks from an election. I'm not going

611
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,400
to ask you who you're going to vote for. But

612
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,599
you've served in the military, you served in the White House,

613
00:34:43,159 --> 00:34:46,199
you know, Donald Trump, You've been a close observer of

614
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:50,760
the Biden administration, which of course includes Kamala Harris advice

615
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:55,199
to voters when it comes to foreign policy, when it

616
00:34:55,199 --> 00:35:01,800
comes to reasserting American strength, to putting right the way

617
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,840
the rest of the country treats the military. How should

618
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:11,480
voters weigh these two candidates? How should voters decide which

619
00:35:11,559 --> 00:35:14,480
candid well, which candidate would be best or at least

620
00:35:14,559 --> 00:35:18,679
which candidate would be less bad into the defense of

621
00:35:18,679 --> 00:35:19,320
this republic.

622
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,159
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think, Peter, it goes back to

623
00:35:22,199 --> 00:35:25,559
the discussion we're having and these question about where are

624
00:35:25,639 --> 00:35:28,199
we on the scale of danger? You know, I think

625
00:35:28,199 --> 00:35:30,719
we're on high on that scale danger because the perception

626
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,599
of weakness. Who's going to portray strength, Who's going to

627
00:35:33,639 --> 00:35:36,599
recognize that it is the perception of weakness that's that

628
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,519
is that is provocative. Who's going to reverse the disastrous

629
00:35:40,559 --> 00:35:44,920
policies in the Middle East, in particular the conciliatory approach

630
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,679
to the to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the

631
00:35:47,679 --> 00:35:51,599
theocratic dictatorship there. You know, who is also going to

632
00:35:51,599 --> 00:35:54,960
to recognize that, You know that Vladimir Putin is a

633
00:35:55,199 --> 00:35:58,559
is a bully, a thug and a coward all at

634
00:35:58,599 --> 00:36:01,880
the same time, and what folks him also is weakness.

635
00:36:02,079 --> 00:36:04,599
So I think what we need is somebody who's going

636
00:36:04,639 --> 00:36:08,519
to lead and somebody who is going to be seen

637
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,000
as having to resolve necessary to counter this aggression and

638
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,280
to do what we all want to do right which

639
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:19,480
is prevent these cascading crises that we've witnessed. The largest

640
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,679
war in Europe since World War Two, a regional war

641
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,079
ongoing right now. There's one of the reasons why the

642
00:36:26,079 --> 00:36:29,679
scales an eight, because there are already two major wars

643
00:36:29,679 --> 00:36:32,159
going on, not even to mention, you know, the growth

644
00:36:32,159 --> 00:36:35,920
of Jahada's terrorist organizations. You know, there are now training camps,

645
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:41,039
terrorist training camps in fifteen Afghan provinces, very predictably, and

646
00:36:41,079 --> 00:36:44,039
we have the expansion of ISIS, for example in West Africa,

647
00:36:45,079 --> 00:36:48,760
as the coups and engineered in large measure by the Russians,

648
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:52,599
have led to the withdrawal of US and French forces

649
00:36:52,599 --> 00:36:55,000
that were in supportive local forces there who were conducting

650
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,039
counter terrorism and operations. I mean, I could go on

651
00:36:57,119 --> 00:36:58,960
about this, but it's going to be a president, I think,

652
00:36:59,119 --> 00:37:03,440
from national security perspective who understands that these challenges to

653
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:06,880
our security that develop abroad can only be dealt with

654
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,239
at an exorbitant cost once they reach our shores. And

655
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,199
so I think that you know that people should try

656
00:37:14,199 --> 00:37:18,400
to try to extract more substance from the candidates and

657
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,199
connection with what their policies would be, you know, vis

658
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:26,239
a v this, this access of aggressors, and what they

659
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,880
would do to secure a better future for Americans by

660
00:37:30,119 --> 00:37:34,239
by preventing UH a large scale war, which I think

661
00:37:34,519 --> 00:37:39,519
is a real possibility, and then also promoting American prosperity

662
00:37:39,599 --> 00:37:43,400
through countering, for example, UH, Chinese economic aggression.

663
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:51,639
Speaker 5: I want h You mentioned some issues that would presumably

664
00:37:52,119 --> 00:37:58,000
be altered if the president changed, which you will depending

665
00:38:01,159 --> 00:38:05,119
I respective of what happens, the president's going to change.

666
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,000
And then you mentioned a bunch of cultural issues, for example,

667
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:13,480
the charities and NGOs, the way they depict soldiers.

668
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:15,119
Speaker 4: How don'd you think the.

669
00:38:16,679 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 5: Panoply of issues you just raise is going to take

670
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:25,719
to fix? How long do those cultural questions take to remedy.

671
00:38:26,079 --> 00:38:30,440
Is that a matter of leadership and quick turnaround or

672
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,519
are we looking at a decade here of change.

673
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 3: I think it's a decade of change, you know. I think, Charles,

674
00:38:37,039 --> 00:38:38,920
it's a lot easier to tear things down than to

675
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:39,639
build things up.

676
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 4: Yeah.

677
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:42,519
Speaker 3: I look at you know, one of the this is

678
00:38:42,679 --> 00:38:46,280
a military example, but I look at the disaster of

679
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:49,480
the policies associated with the Vietnam War and how they

680
00:38:49,519 --> 00:38:52,880
destroyed the United States Army, you know, really put an

681
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:56,719
army on a real strain in the nineteen seventies. And

682
00:38:56,760 --> 00:39:00,360
then how it took really the Reagular administration really kind

683
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:01,920
of the very end of the Carter administration, but then

684
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:05,159
the Reagan administration to address that. And then and how

685
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,199
it took a number of leaders in our army who

686
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:12,480
had seen the army before these destructive policies to implement

687
00:39:12,559 --> 00:39:16,280
really a renaissance in the army that began with improvements

688
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,800
and higher standards in recruiting and education and leader education

689
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,440
in particular, at change in our doctrine, a modernization of

690
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,480
the force. And that's that's the army that emerged from

691
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,480
the eighties. I think one of the strongest peacetime military

692
00:39:29,519 --> 00:39:32,320
is relative to adversaries in the history of the world,

693
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,880
you know, and that's the military that you know, Saddam

694
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,280
Hussein was, you know, it was stupid enough to challenge,

695
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,800
you know, and and and and uh ninety one go

696
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,920
for So I think that I think of it. I

697
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,000
think of it in terms of a decade long project

698
00:39:48,639 --> 00:39:52,079
of rebuilding and of course not to overcorrect. Right. So

699
00:39:52,159 --> 00:39:54,559
we talked about this curriculum of self loathing. You don't

700
00:39:54,559 --> 00:39:57,760
want to replace that with some contrived happy view of

701
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,960
US history. But I think what's long, you know, with

702
00:40:01,039 --> 00:40:03,599
the way that we teach history is we've just bought

703
00:40:03,599 --> 00:40:06,199
into an orthodoxy of the new left. We've always had that,

704
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:08,800
right Charles and Mary Beard, you know, and the and

705
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,360
the William Appleman, Williams. I mean, it's always been a strain,

706
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,719
you know, in in in in our interpretation of history.

707
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,239
But it shouldn't become an orthodoxy, right And and I

708
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,480
think what we ought to teach our young people is yeah,

709
00:40:22,519 --> 00:40:26,519
I mean, our republic has always required constant nurturing, right

710
00:40:26,559 --> 00:40:29,119
we you know, we you know, are a republic though

711
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:33,320
wasn't founded to preserve slavery. It was founded, for example,

712
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:37,679
on on ideals and principles that ultimately made that criminal

713
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:40,199
institution untenable. And we should teach our children that we

714
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:43,079
fought the most destructive war in our history to emancipate

715
00:40:43,159 --> 00:40:45,800
six million of our fellow Americans. But then also teach

716
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:48,639
them about the fellow of reconstruction, the rise of the

717
00:40:48,679 --> 00:40:52,159
Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow and separate butt unequal.

718
00:40:52,679 --> 00:40:54,239
But but then teach them about the triumph of the

719
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:58,440
civil rights movement. You know, in the end of Djora segregation,

720
00:40:58,599 --> 00:41:02,159
inequality of opportunity, does the facto inequality of opportunities still

721
00:41:02,159 --> 00:41:04,119
exist based on you know, maybe the zip code you're

722
00:41:04,119 --> 00:41:06,920
born in. Yes, Okay, So let's get to work on that.

723
00:41:07,199 --> 00:41:11,559
I think what's happened is this orthodoxy of self loathing

724
00:41:11,639 --> 00:41:14,679
and you know, and critical theories, and you know, I

725
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,719
think it's it robs Americans of agency, and in particular,

726
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:20,800
it leaves our young people with this kind of just

727
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:25,119
toxic combination of anger and resignation. So that's going to

728
00:41:25,159 --> 00:41:27,480
take time to restore. I think what we have on

729
00:41:27,519 --> 00:41:30,679
our side is the younger generation. I mean, I I mean,

730
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:33,559
you know, I think it's their job as students to

731
00:41:33,559 --> 00:41:37,199
be skeptical about this kind of orthodoxy that they're that

732
00:41:37,519 --> 00:41:40,000
they're that you know that you know there's being forced

733
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,559
on them and in some in some universities and and

734
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:46,920
uh and in some curricula and secondary education as well.

735
00:41:47,519 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, General, the again the title of your most

736
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:54,239
recent book, at War with Ourselves. Happily, we are not

737
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:56,639
at war with ourselves here at the Ricochet Podcast, and

738
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,280
we will look forward to having you back again soon.

739
00:41:59,639 --> 00:42:02,159
Keep up your gold status as a Ricochet guest, and

740
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:05,639
hopefully when the McMaster's s threat meter is down from

741
00:42:05,679 --> 00:42:07,840
eight to a more tolerable five. Thanks very much for

742
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:09,000
joining us, General.

743
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:10,599
Speaker 3: See, thanks, thanks to all of you. What a pleasure

744
00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:11,039
to be with you.

745
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:14,320
Speaker 1: Hr thank you all right, So well, I was mentioning

746
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,920
at the very beginning, of course, that we had a

747
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,239
lot of familiar things happen over again this week. You know,

748
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,920
Kamela working your words, Salad shooter, you know, new deadlock polls.

749
00:42:23,079 --> 00:42:25,159
One thing we didn't have is we did not have

750
00:42:25,199 --> 00:42:28,480
another hurricane. So I'm assuming Charlie this means that you

751
00:42:28,599 --> 00:42:30,280
are sleeping better at night right now.

752
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 5: I am sleeping bachelor at night right now, especially because

753
00:42:34,559 --> 00:42:37,519
I sleep on cozy earth sheets.

754
00:42:38,079 --> 00:42:39,760
Speaker 4: Of course, he has become American.

755
00:42:40,119 --> 00:42:44,400
Speaker 1: He can do, he can do ofvi seg.

756
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:45,159
Speaker 3: There we go.

757
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:45,679
Speaker 4: You see.

758
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:48,159
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759
00:42:48,199 --> 00:42:51,159
wife loves them. I love them too. But if my

760
00:42:51,199 --> 00:42:53,400
wife didn't love them, then that would be the end

761
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,920
of it. But she absolutely loves them, and so should you.

762
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763
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764
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766
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767
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769
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786
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788
00:44:33,119 --> 00:44:34,599
Speaker 1: So I want to continue with you with Charlie a

789
00:44:34,599 --> 00:44:36,159
little bit. I mean, I guess we ought to get

790
00:44:36,159 --> 00:44:38,599
in on the fun with Kamala Harris this week on

791
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:42,119
with Brett Barron Fox. Ah what I guess she did?

792
00:44:42,599 --> 00:44:44,880
What Calmly Daddy podcast? Or was that last week? I

793
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:49,119
don't remember, but I did stumble across this article by

794
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:54,039
one Charles CW. Cook. The headline is Kamala Harris is

795
00:44:54,079 --> 00:44:56,960
an idiot? Charli, I wish you wouldn't be so equivocal

796
00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:00,199
and uncertain in your judgments. But I mean, what you

797
00:45:00,199 --> 00:45:02,199
have to add about what we saw campbella this week

798
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:04,880
is she desperate? What's your theory of why she decided

799
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:06,719
to go on Fox? And how do you think she did?

800
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, this piece was part of what I've referred

801
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,599
to as a trilogy, my verdicts being that Joe Biden

802
00:45:13,679 --> 00:45:17,440
is an asshole, and Donald Trump is a lunatic, and

803
00:45:17,519 --> 00:45:20,840
Kamala Harris is an idiot. I think it's important sometimes

804
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,679
to distill powerful or would be powerful people down to

805
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,960
their essence, and the essence of Harris because she's an idiot.

806
00:45:28,039 --> 00:45:31,079
She doesn't know anything, she doesn't think about anything, she

807
00:45:31,079 --> 00:45:36,360
doesn't have a worldview. She is not interested in politics

808
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:39,719
except in so far as it might help her gain power,

809
00:45:40,199 --> 00:45:43,159
and it shows I don't quite know what's going on

810
00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:45,599
with the campaign. What I do know is that they

811
00:45:45,639 --> 00:45:48,280
think they're losing. It's not the same thing as losing,

812
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:51,159
but they think they're losing. And the Democrats and their

813
00:45:51,159 --> 00:45:53,840
friends in the press seem to think that they're losing too.

814
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,719
And I suspect that the appearance on Brett Bear's show

815
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:02,239
was the product of that sense, and what we saw

816
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:09,360
on that show was predictable given that Harris, as I said,

817
00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:15,000
does not have anything to her except a support for

818
00:46:15,079 --> 00:46:18,880
abortion and a loathing of Donald Trump. There are two topics,

819
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:23,199
and two topics only where Harris is confident and coherent

820
00:46:23,639 --> 00:46:27,760
and eloquent and forceful, and they are when discussing abortion,

821
00:46:28,199 --> 00:46:29,639
and that is a good issue for the Democrats.

822
00:46:29,639 --> 00:46:30,679
Speaker 4: I wish it weren't, but it is.

823
00:46:31,199 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 5: And when pointing out that Donald Trump is a liability,

824
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,840
which is another good issue for the Democrats. Everything else

825
00:46:38,559 --> 00:46:42,840
she fails when asked about. And the key reason for

826
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,519
that is that the questions that Bear asked her are unanswerable.

827
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:49,320
I don't even think she needed to be an idiot

828
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,039
for much of that interview to go the way did.

829
00:46:51,079 --> 00:46:53,280
She just needed to have changed her mind on every

830
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:56,960
question that was put before hers in twenty nineteen. She

831
00:46:57,159 --> 00:47:00,320
just needed to be a part of the Biden Harris administration.

832
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:01,039
Speaker 4: Right.

833
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,360
Speaker 5: The two things Bear kept hammering her on were why

834
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,679
have you changed your mind on everything since twenty nineteen?

835
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 4: There's no good answer to that.

836
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:09,920
Speaker 5: The answer is because I want to win, but she

837
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:14,199
can't say that, And are you the second coming of

838
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:15,400
Joe Biden, and.

839
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:17,280
Speaker 4: The answer to that is yes, but she can't say that.

840
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:22,079
Speaker 5: But she's also adopted that as her answer default because

841
00:47:22,119 --> 00:47:23,960
she doesn't want to say I've changed all of my

842
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:25,119
opinions since twenty nineteen.

843
00:47:25,119 --> 00:47:27,800
Speaker 4: Then she can't go back to them either. So she's

844
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:29,480
in a completely untenable position.

845
00:47:29,519 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 5: And I think that Bear, because he's very good at

846
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:35,039
his job, made that clear, except on the question of Trump,

847
00:47:35,039 --> 00:47:36,599
where she has a point and she knows that she

848
00:47:36,639 --> 00:47:39,159
can score some points. And although it didn't come up

849
00:47:39,199 --> 00:47:42,000
in the interview so much, on abortion, where she knows

850
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,320
she's on a seventy to thirty winning side.

851
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, Peter, you know, as someone who has crafted short,

852
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:51,880
memorable statements, you know, tear down some wall or something

853
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,800
stuff like that. I wonder if you remember when George H. W.

854
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:59,000
Bush was running for president in nineteen eighty eight. The

855
00:47:59,039 --> 00:48:02,119
reason I bring us up is, you know, Kamela on

856
00:48:02,199 --> 00:48:04,039
the View last week said I can't think of a

857
00:48:04,079 --> 00:48:07,280
thing where I disagree with Biden, and that I have

858
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:09,920
a synapse. I haven't killed with whiskey yet. That reminded

859
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:11,760
me that at the very first I think it was

860
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:15,679
Republican debate for the eighty eight cycle. Everybody's after Vice

861
00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:17,599
President Bush, right, you know, Jack Kemp was in the

862
00:48:17,599 --> 00:48:21,039
field Al hag Pete DuPont, the governor of Delaware. It

863
00:48:21,159 --> 00:48:25,000
was a formidable field and one of the first questions,

864
00:48:26,039 --> 00:48:27,679
I wonder if you were involved with this, remember it

865
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:29,559
and helped my memory. One of the first questions. I

866
00:48:29,599 --> 00:48:31,599
tried to look it up and can't find a transcript,

867
00:48:31,639 --> 00:48:33,519
but I remember it pretty vividly. One of the first

868
00:48:33,599 --> 00:48:37,039
questions was Vice President Bush, can you please tell us

869
00:48:37,639 --> 00:48:40,639
what policies or decisions of President Reagan's that you have

870
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:44,880
disagreed with or argued against during your vice presidency, And

871
00:48:45,039 --> 00:48:48,440
he very confident and asserted. Bush said, I could, but

872
00:48:48,559 --> 00:48:51,599
I won't. I won't for two reasons. One is is

873
00:48:51,639 --> 00:48:54,079
that it's a vice president's duty to give candid counsel

874
00:48:54,159 --> 00:48:56,840
to a president. And if you start having vice presidents

875
00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:58,840
to make a practice of talking publicly about what they

876
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:01,880
disagree with, he will room one a very important relationship

877
00:49:02,119 --> 00:49:05,320
of confidentiality between a president and a vice president. And second,

878
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:08,440
this campaign's about the future, not about the past. And

879
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,559
then he course laid out a couple of his main points,

880
00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:11,679
and that was the end.

881
00:49:11,679 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 3: Of it.

882
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:14,760
Speaker 1: He never got trussed again to put daylight between himself

883
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,800
and President Reagan. A couple of different circumstances. But do

884
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,519
you remember that episode at all? Maybe you heard of that. No, No,

885
00:49:21,559 --> 00:49:24,480
I wasn't by that. Why couldn't Harris campaign? And this

886
00:49:24,599 --> 00:49:27,320
is their incompetence that they could have given almost exactly

887
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:28,559
the same answer, And.

888
00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 2: That's exactly correct, That is exactly correct. Of course, the

889
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,119
difference is that Ronald Reagan was popular, extremely popular, and

890
00:49:35,159 --> 00:49:38,320
Joe Biden is not, and Bush would almost have been

891
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:40,800
able to say. And three there was no substantive difference.

892
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,719
But still you're exactly right. Well, we could go into this.

893
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:47,519
We won't go into it. We could go on and on.

894
00:49:48,440 --> 00:49:51,719
There are answers that both of these candidates could and

895
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,280
should be giving, that are crisp, that are reasonable, that

896
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:57,400
would be illuminating, and that would advance their causes politically.

897
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:02,239
And for what do we have a lunatic versus and

898
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:05,440
know nothing and lunatic verses in it? They're both they

899
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,239
are who they are, they are who they are, and

900
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:12,159
they're missing one chance after another. By the way, so

901
00:50:12,199 --> 00:50:15,039
may I ask the two of you the same question

902
00:50:15,079 --> 00:50:18,559
I asked Hr and isolate it to the question of

903
00:50:18,599 --> 00:50:25,519
foreign policy alone, Trump versus Harris, and what's the correct

904
00:50:25,519 --> 00:50:28,719
way of weighing it? What is the correct way of

905
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,079
assessing it? And by the way, Steve, a side note

906
00:50:31,119 --> 00:50:33,480
for you, since you and I are both in California

907
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:36,960
and our votes in California won't matter anyway, the state

908
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:40,280
is going overwhelmingly for Harris, shall we agree right now

909
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:41,800
to write in hr McMaster.

910
00:50:42,119 --> 00:50:44,039
Speaker 1: I was going to suggest that, Yeah, and then we

911
00:50:44,039 --> 00:50:46,119
can also you and I start the committee for hr

912
00:50:46,199 --> 00:50:48,719
McMaster twenty twenty eight. Yeah, we sure, we go exactly,

913
00:50:49,079 --> 00:50:50,679
But boys, how do you weigh it out? How do

914
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:52,280
you assess it? We're going to end up with one

915
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,039
or the other of these? How do we buy it?

916
00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:54,559
Speaker 4: So?

917
00:50:55,079 --> 00:50:57,559
Speaker 1: I don't completely agree with Charlie that Trump is a lunatic,

918
00:50:57,559 --> 00:51:00,440
although I understand why he and many other people think that.

919
00:51:00,679 --> 00:51:01,400
Speaker 3: But he's not crazy.

920
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 1: But is he crazy like a fox? Well, that's what

921
00:51:04,039 --> 00:51:07,119
I kind of think. But there's an advantage to having

922
00:51:07,199 --> 00:51:12,159
someone that our enemies wonder about, right and that you know,

923
00:51:12,199 --> 00:51:14,440
he might be crazy. He just might. He just might

924
00:51:14,599 --> 00:51:16,719
level the country like he threatens to do on Twitter.

925
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:19,519
And there's some value in that now, it's got to

926
00:51:19,559 --> 00:51:22,440
be credible. But you know, taking out General SULEMANI back

927
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:25,840
in twenty nineteen, that sent the message that, you know what,

928
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:27,559
he will do that kind of thing once in a while.

929
00:51:27,639 --> 00:51:29,599
So that's why I think it get tips in his favor.

930
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:31,679
Charlie may disagree. I don't know.

931
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 2: And do we have to suppose that the people he'll

932
00:51:33,719 --> 00:51:35,840
surround himself with will be better?

933
00:51:36,639 --> 00:51:41,199
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily suppose that, but you don't, all right, No, Charlie.

934
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,679
Speaker 5: My description of Trump is illinity isn't really related to

935
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:44,480
his foreign policy.

936
00:51:44,519 --> 00:51:46,239
Speaker 4: I sctually agree with you on this. I think that

937
00:51:46,519 --> 00:51:49,199
Trump's perception.

938
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:54,360
Speaker 5: As a crazy man probably did help while he was president,

939
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:57,199
and the way that he told probably did help as well.

940
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:02,199
I think that his behavior after he lost, and some

941
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:06,440
of the things that he said suspend the Constitution, for example,

942
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:12,039
with sheer lunacy and we're disqualifying. But in terms of

943
00:52:12,039 --> 00:52:15,400
foreign policy, and I'm not a foreign policy expert, so

944
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:16,840
I want to say that upfront, this is just not

945
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:17,559
my area.

946
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,320
Speaker 4: I do think that there.

947
00:52:21,199 --> 00:52:23,719
Speaker 5: Is still a fundamental divide, and I don't think Trump

948
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,559
negates this between the broad worldviews of the left and

949
00:52:29,599 --> 00:52:31,519
the right, and the Republicans and the Democrats and the

950
00:52:31,559 --> 00:52:35,480
sort of people who are around Harris and Trump.

951
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:39,320
Speaker 4: That creates a.

952
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:44,760
Speaker 5: Substantial difference in attitudes toward foreign policy wants candidates are

953
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:47,599
in office. And I think that difference is a belief

954
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:53,599
in the immutability of human nature. And at the risk

955
00:52:53,639 --> 00:52:58,519
of getting too philosophical here, everything I see from Biden

956
00:52:58,559 --> 00:53:05,400
and Harris, whether it's Israel or Iran or China, even

957
00:53:06,599 --> 00:53:11,559
seems to presuppose that bad actors in the world act

958
00:53:11,639 --> 00:53:16,119
badly because of the United States and its conduct, or

959
00:53:16,239 --> 00:53:20,480
something that we said, or because there are fundamental injustices

960
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:24,559
that need to be remedied. And I think that by

961
00:53:24,599 --> 00:53:27,199
and large Republicans believe that there are just bad people

962
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:31,880
not there, and that they have bad instincts and bad aims.

963
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:32,960
Speaker 4: Now there is a.

964
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,159
Speaker 5: Caveat here in that I don't think that Trump is

965
00:53:36,159 --> 00:53:39,639
a stooge of Putin. I don't even think that he's

966
00:53:39,679 --> 00:53:42,800
as useful to Putin as people say. And if you look,

967
00:53:42,840 --> 00:53:44,960
for example, when he was president, he was the one

968
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,639
who sent heavy weaponry the Ukraine, which Obama didn't do.

969
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,920
He has not been as opposed to funding the war

970
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:52,880
in Ukraine as many think. In fact, one of the

971
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,480
funny things about our politics is people have pretended to

972
00:53:56,559 --> 00:54:01,119
make fit their ideological priors that Trump is against funding Ukraine.

973
00:54:01,159 --> 00:54:04,000
So you had the Bulwark saying, wow, he must have

974
00:54:04,079 --> 00:54:06,440
been really angry with Mike Johnson, when actually he helped

975
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:09,000
Mike Johnson get that funding through. And then you had

976
00:54:09,079 --> 00:54:12,119
American Greatness, for example, saying, look at all of these

977
00:54:12,199 --> 00:54:16,639
traitors in Congress who passes funding without acknowledging that Trump

978
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:21,440
was among So I'm a little confused by some of

979
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:25,840
his electric on Russia, but I don't think he's, you know,

980
00:54:27,239 --> 00:54:30,079
anything like as friendly toward Russia as the pressers. But

981
00:54:30,199 --> 00:54:32,559
by and large, I think Trump understands that there are

982
00:54:32,599 --> 00:54:36,119
bad guys out there, that the world is dangerous, that

983
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,360
the geopolitical interests of the United States should not be

984
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:44,000
subordinated to some sort of Berkeley thesis on hierarchies of grievance,

985
00:54:44,480 --> 00:54:46,800
and that if we get a Trump administration, it's foreign

986
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:49,199
policy is going to be better as a result. And

987
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:52,320
I just think that the presidential candidates and the parties

988
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:55,800
they represent and the ideologies that they here to make

989
00:54:55,880 --> 00:55:00,639
that difference really concrete, and it will manifest solf after

990
00:55:00,679 --> 00:55:01,119
the election.

991
00:55:02,159 --> 00:55:05,760
Speaker 2: Very nicely put, I wished, mister chairman, I wish to

992
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:09,559
associate myself with every word of Charlie's remarks.

993
00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 1: Okay, very well, nicely put. Well, let me begin drawing

994
00:55:13,519 --> 00:55:18,199
us to an end with two sleeper items from from

995
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:20,840
this week, and you can grab either one of them

996
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:22,639
or neither if you like, and suggest the third one.

997
00:55:22,679 --> 00:55:24,800
The first one is, you've heard a lot of chatter

998
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:27,039
and there seems to be some evidence in campaign talk

999
00:55:28,159 --> 00:55:32,239
about how the whole business of transgenderism and you know, women,

1000
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:35,559
men and women's sports is the sleeper issue in this campaign.

1001
00:55:35,639 --> 00:55:38,679
And I gather some Republican candidates for the Senator running

1002
00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:42,079
some very effective ads putting Democrats on the defensive. And

1003
00:55:42,239 --> 00:55:44,480
Brett behar brought this up with the Kambla Harris, who

1004
00:55:44,519 --> 00:55:46,440
tried to run away from it as fast as she could.

1005
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:48,760
So there's that. I wonder if we think that that

1006
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:51,239
really is a big sleeper issue, we're going to wake

1007
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:53,639
up on election day or the day after and realize

1008
00:55:53,679 --> 00:55:56,440
it was a factor. The second one was that I

1009
00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:58,360
don't know if you guys saw this, but you know,

1010
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,719
I'm on a college campus, I'm in the middle of

1011
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:04,079
these academic fights. The New York Times this week ran

1012
00:56:04,239 --> 00:56:08,440
a very long story right on the DEI business at

1013
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,159
the University of Michigan. And what's notable about it is

1014
00:56:11,199 --> 00:56:14,239
not just how savage, it is about how awful and

1015
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:18,239
corrupt and ideological far left ideology. The writer says. But

1016
00:56:18,559 --> 00:56:22,719
the story was written by Nick Confessatory, was a pretty

1017
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:24,639
left wing reporter for the Times.

1018
00:56:24,599 --> 00:56:26,599
Speaker 2: And indeed it was Confessional.

1019
00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 1: I hope I got his name right, But I mean

1020
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,000
the story is I kept thinking Chris Rufa could have

1021
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:37,000
written this article. Astonishing piece, and you know, if you know,

1022
00:56:37,079 --> 00:56:39,119
there's the cliche if you've lost the New York Times.

1023
00:56:39,119 --> 00:56:41,480
But that's got to leave a mark, except I think

1024
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:43,800
we're going to see and that story made clear that

1025
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:47,079
they're digging in so hard with the whole DEI ideology

1026
00:56:47,159 --> 00:56:49,400
for reasons. General McMaster laid out that it's going to

1027
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:51,440
be hard to root them out. But I thought that's

1028
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:53,679
a remarkable thing that The New York Times would run

1029
00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:56,679
such a long piece like that. So those are my

1030
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:59,440
two sleeper stories of the week or items of the week.

1031
00:57:00,079 --> 00:57:05,880
You comment on the DEI question, sure, Charlie mentioned a

1032
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:08,119
moment ago the glories of federalism. And here we have

1033
00:57:08,199 --> 00:57:13,719
yet another example. I discovered on a recent trip to Texas,

1034
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:16,639
something that I think Charlie is already well aware of,

1035
00:57:17,119 --> 00:57:22,559
and that is that Florida and Texas, the governors of

1036
00:57:22,599 --> 00:57:24,880
those two states keep an eye on each other, and

1037
00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:27,119
the legislatures of those two states keep an eye on

1038
00:57:27,159 --> 00:57:31,599
each other, and they feel competitive about who is doing

1039
00:57:31,639 --> 00:57:37,079
the most rigorous and sweeping job of instituting conservative policies.

1040
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:43,960
We have states competing to keep taxes low, to reduce regulation,

1041
00:57:44,199 --> 00:57:47,119
to fighting for the aerospace industry as it is emerging

1042
00:57:47,199 --> 00:57:50,840
under the likes of Elon Musk. And when Ben Sas,

1043
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:53,280
who's had to step down as president of Florida because

1044
00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:55,840
of the University of Florida because of his wife's illness.

1045
00:57:55,840 --> 00:58:00,800
But this past spring, Ben Sas announced that dea I

1046
00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:04,039
was going to be forbidden at the University of Florida,

1047
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:06,159
and the way that would be handled is that DEI

1048
00:58:06,199 --> 00:58:09,280
officials in the university's employment would be first on the

1049
00:58:09,280 --> 00:58:12,599
list for new jobs as they became available. And the

1050
00:58:12,639 --> 00:58:15,880
Texans looked over their shoulders at what Ben Sas had

1051
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:19,320
done and said, we'll see him and raise him and

1052
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:26,360
the legislature made DEI illegal at state institutions, and of

1053
00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:31,559
course in Texas. The state institutions in particular UT dominate

1054
00:58:31,639 --> 00:58:35,400
higher education in Texas, and this year they are being

1055
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:39,599
serious about it, hauling into the legislature for public hearings,

1056
00:58:40,079 --> 00:58:43,280
provosts and other officials from the UT system to make

1057
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:47,400
sure that they are obeying the law. And in Michigan,

1058
00:58:47,440 --> 00:58:50,519
of course it's a different but oh my goodness, think

1059
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:54,480
yet again, Thank goodness for federalism in this country. There's

1060
00:58:54,519 --> 00:58:57,920
still always some new place to go. You know, I

1061
00:58:57,960 --> 00:58:59,519
am I mean two quick things about that. I know

1062
00:58:59,559 --> 00:59:01,880
a bit about Texas story. They're actually slow in the

1063
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:05,400
legislature to figure it out, but once they did, because

1064
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:07,000
I know people were talking to them for two three

1065
00:59:07,039 --> 00:59:09,599
years now about you need to do something about this. Yes,

1066
00:59:09,679 --> 00:59:14,239
oh yeah, I know, faculty members, you excellent. And but

1067
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:16,360
they've said, now, we're not going to be fooled by

1068
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:19,159
renaming something. That's a tactic going on a lot of places.

1069
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:22,000
But I do remember, you know, when I had a

1070
00:59:22,039 --> 00:59:24,559
long conversation about this with Governor DeSantis is a year

1071
00:59:24,599 --> 00:59:26,760
and a half ago, and one of things he said was,

1072
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:31,119
I don't understand why redder states than Florida. The Republican

1073
00:59:31,159 --> 00:59:34,559
governors are not taking after their public universities. Well now

1074
00:59:34,599 --> 00:59:36,960
they are because I think they looked around and said,

1075
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:38,840
oh yeah, he's got the right idea. So I think

1076
00:59:38,880 --> 00:59:42,599
that's what's going on that we have come to and

1077
00:59:42,639 --> 00:59:45,599
I maybe even surpassed the end of our hour. We

1078
00:59:45,679 --> 00:59:48,920
want to thank our new sponsors, Cozy Earth and Incognity.

1079
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:51,239
I want to encourage listeners to give us a five

1080
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:54,519
star review on Apple or wherever you source your podcasts

1081
00:59:54,719 --> 00:59:58,039
and Lee send us your comments and we'll see you

1082
00:59:58,119 --> 01:00:01,360
all in the common threads on Ricochet four point zero.

1083
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:03,280
Bye guys, Bye bye boys.

1084
01:00:03,639 --> 01:00:06,199
Speaker 2: Next week I think next week, yes, yes, next week.

1085
01:00:08,280 --> 01:00:09,480
Speaker 3: Ricochet h

1086
01:00:11,559 --> 01:00:12,559
Speaker 2: Join the conversation.